News

Blood levels of the soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) protein may be a helpful tool for assessing disease severity and prognosis in people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), a new study reports. The study, “The Plasma…

Low levels of the protein alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT) do not appear to be enough to increase the risk of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) — despite prior associations of AAT deficiency with AAV — according to a new study.

Clinical trials testing new treatments for people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) need more uniformity in the patients they recruit and in the outcome measures used for efficacy assessments, a new review indicates. The review, “Randomized clinical trials in ANCA-associated vasculitis: a systematic analysis of the WHO…

The Vasculitis Foundation awarded its “Dr. Chris Cox-Marinelli Young Investigator Award” — a one-year research grant totaling $49,822 — to Dragana Odobasic, PhD, a research fellow at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. The award is for Odobasic”s research on a subset of specialized immune cells, called…

The Alexion Charitable Foundation has awarded $1.1 million in grants to programs that support those with rare diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization recently announced. The grants will support activities that align with the foundation’s Rare Belonging focus, a set of funding priorities aimed at improving the…

Depression is more common in people with primary systemic vasculitides, including in those with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), than in healthy people, a review study has found.  Depression in vasculitis patients was also significantly associated with a poorer quality of…

Cigarette smoking significantly increases the odds of developing ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), particularly the disease form with antibodies against the myeloperoxidade (MPO) protein, and this risk is stronger in people with greater cigarette exposure, a large database study reported. The study, “Association of Cigarette Smoking With Antineutrophil…

People with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) who have kidney involvement when they are diagnosed are more likely to experience major kidney relapses later, a new study shows. The study also indicates that induction treatment with cyclophosphamide and/or rituximab can protect against these relapses. Titled “Renal involvement…

Guidelines for using rituximab as a maintenance therapy in adults with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) were recently published that, in addition to helping physicians with treatment approaches, highlight areas where more research is needed. “Rituximab for maintenance of remission in ANCA-associated vasculitis: expert consensus guidelines,” was…

The Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI) recently created a Rare Disease Diversity Coalition focused on reducing racial disparities in the rare disease community. Getting a timely and accurate diagnosis for a disease that few people — sometimes even physicians — have heard of is challenging on its own merit.